Method for protecting against duplication with a color copier

ABSTRACT

A method for protecting against duplication of a document with a color copier comprises providing a background color on a document having an average reflectance value and printing on the background with a contrast color having a spectral characteristic which modulates the average reflectance value by no more than 5% and has an average value equal to the average reflectance value. The contrast color is printed with a printing medium that allows activation by a rub and reveal action or by application of intense light.

This application is a .Iadd.Reissue of Ser. No. 08/049,748 now U.S. Pat.No. 5,354,723 which is a .Iaddend.continuation-in-part application ofU.S. application Ser. No. 07/861,712, filed Apr. 1, 1992 . .and stillpending.!. .Iadd.now U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,066.Iaddend..

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The advent of color copiers and the tremendous improvements recentlyachieved in the visual quality of copies produced by such photocopiershas opened up a new area of major concern in the fight against thefraudulent duplication and counterfeiting of valuable documents.

The almost daily reported cases of fraudulently color copied admissiontickets to major events, securities and high face value redeemablecoupons are only a few examples of a very large problem.

The prior art provides a technology where the background of an originaldocument is printed by a complex combination of multicolor screens wherea statement such as VOID or COPY is "hidden" to the casual visualscrutiny and upon copying, the screens that carry the hidden wordsbecome more prominent and hence the latter become visible to reveal thecopied nature of the document. It is important to note that the priorart relies on the "revelation" of "hidden" information. This has aninherent weakness which results from the obvious ease with which the"revealed" information can always be erased or inhibited throughsuccessive copying. As a matter of fact it is currently known in theprinting trade that, while on the one hand the successful provision of a"Standard Register" prescribed background on the original is ratherdifficult, on the other hand the inhibition of the revealable messageson the copy is relatively easy.

As distinctly opposed to the above described situation, the presentinvention consists of placing on the original document, through any oneof the presently known printing processes, background information whichis visually perceptible and readable to a greater or a lesser degree,but which upon color copying will be washed away thus alarming the userby its absence.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a relatively simple, but mostimportantly, a very effective technology that results in a radicalsolution to this problem.

Furthermore, this technology is completely compatible with all knownprinting systems and is, therefore, particularly suitable for theprotection of original documents, labels and other printed vehiclesagainst duplication on color copiers.

The central concept of this invention is to impart to the background ofa document a carefully specified optochemical dual characteristic ofwhich evidently neither the optical nor the chemical components can beduplicated by a color copier. Actually, the very high security providedby this technique consists of the fact that when the operatorfraudulently using the color copier tries to obtain at best a visualduplication of the document, the presently disclosed technique willrender the copy easily identified by a legitimate examiner and hencewill induce the latter to proceed to a simple verification step using asimple chemical, mechanical or optical action, where the fraudulent copywill invariably fail, since the copier is naturally incapable ofreproducing any chemical or photochemical feature from the original.

These and other objects and advantages are achieved in accordance withthe present invention by a method for protecting against duplication ofa document with a color copier, comprising as a first condition theprovision of a background color on a document having a uniformreflectance of a given average reflectance value and printinginformation or a message on the background with a contrast color havinga spectral characteristic which modulates the average reflectance valueby no more than 5% and which also has an average value essentially equalto the average reflectance value of the background. The step of printingthe contrast color comprises further applying a printing mediumincluding in one instance a mixture of micronized color former leucodye, a micronized activator, such as an activator phenolic resin or anactivator bisphenol or an activator hydroxybenzoate and a binder and theverification method further comprises thereafter activating the colorformer leuco dye and the activating phenolic resin or other micronizedactivator to change the original color of the printing medium bysimultaneously applying localized mechanical pressure and a rubbingaction on the printing medium. Alternatively, printing the contrastcolor comprises applying a printing medium including one of micronizedcolor former leuco dye and a micronized activator, such as an activatorphenolic resin, covering the printing medium with a first colorlesscontinuous coating of a barrier material and covering the continuouscoating with a second continuous coating of the proper contrast color ofthe other of a micronized color former leuco dye and micronizedactivator, such as an activator phenolic resin and the verificationmethod further comprises activating the color former leuco dye and theactivating phenolic resin to change the color of the printing medium bysimultaneously applying localized mechanical pressure sufficient tobreak the barrier coating and a rubbing action on the printing medium.

In another embodiment, printing the contrast color comprises applying aprinting medium including a mixture of micronized color former leuco dyeand a micronized activator where one or both of such micronizedmaterials is encapsulated in microcapsules of which the walls constitutea proper barrier material as described later and the verification methodfurther comprises activating the color former leuco dye and theactivating phenolic resin or other micronized activator material tochange the color of the printing medium by simultaneously applying alocalized mechanical pressure sufficient to break the walls of themicrocapsules and a rubbing action on the printing medium.

In a further embodiment, printing comprises applying a printing mediumwith the proper contrast color but also including a microencapsulatedphotochromic dye only sensitive to intense radiation and theverification method further comprises activating the photochromic dye tochange the color of the printing medium.

The present invention will be discussed with reference to the attacheddrawing wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a graph of the optical characteristics of the presentinvention; and

FIGS. 2a, 2b and 2c are side views of substrates formed in accordancewith the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The objective of the present invention is to tailor the opticalcharacteristics such that they appear as visually identifiable elementson the original document and that they then disappear or at best, arecompletely distorted after color copying and hence through their absenceor visual distortion reveal that a copying process has taken place. Inaddition, a chemically, mechanically or radiation activated verificationmechanism is integrated into the original document.

A color copier reproduces the colored information from a document byidentifying the spectral components of the image pixel to be duplicatedand by reproducing as closely as possible the same spectral componentson the copy paper by mixing proportionated quantities of colored toners,or in other cases, color developers, that will result in a reasonablereplica of the original color.

The present invention takes advantage of the substantial difference inthe dynamic range of the copier considered as a sensor of spectralcharacteristics compared to the human eye. Specifically, it can beobserved that while the human eye can easily discern a =(2 to 5)%modulation in the spectral reflection characteristic of a substrate, thecolor copiers dynamic range sensitivity is substantially less than halfof the above range, thus, up to about a 10% total variation in thespectral characteristic is averaged out to zero by the copier.

The present invention, therefore, prescribes the color of the copyvanishing information to be as shown in FIG. 1. Three different casesare described in FIG. 1. In each case, an average reflectance (Av),corresponds to the prescribed overall uniform reflectance of thebackground of the original document. Thus, in case I, Av(80) correspondsto an essentially white general background color; in case II, Av(60)corresponds to a perceptibly grey background color; and in case III,Av(30) corresponds to a relatively dark grey background color.

The information to be printed on the above described backgrounds has aspectral characteristic in each case given typically by the curves 11,12, 21, 22 and 31, 32. Actually any spectral characteristic thatmodulates the chosen average with a modulation amplitude that is within5% of the average (Av), can be adopted. These characteristics willactually visually correspond to describable shades. Thus as in case I,the general impression left by 12 will be a light green, the impressionleft by 11 will be a light pink or purple. Other modulations within 5%(between 76 to 84%) would result in light brown, yellow, etc. colors. Incase II, the general background is a light grey and the impression leftby 22, 21 and other modulations of the average within 5% (between 57 to63%) will be a slightly green shaded grey, pink or purple shaded grey,brown shaded grey, etc. In case III, the general background is a darkgrey and the impression left by 32, 31 and other modulations of theaverage within 5% (between 28.5 to 31.5%) will be a very slightly greenshaded or a very slightly purple shaded grey.

An obvious limiting case of this invention is when the modulation depthis reduced down to very small values of practically 0% as shown incurves 41, 42, 51, 52, 61, 62 in FIG. 1. In that case, the printedinformation is hardly visible and even actually practically invisible ina casual inspection and therefore very securely uncopiable. In thesecases, the presence of the verification mechanism be it chemical,optical or mechanical, described hereinafter can vividly bring out theinformation wherever required.

The key element in every one of the above described cases is to ensurethat the average reflectance of the general background and the averageof the modulation shade are practically equal. Notice, therefore, thatwhile in case I the information is essentially printed over anessentially white background, in cases II and III it is necessary toseparately print the background and the information with proper relativeregistering. Indeed, it is quite obvious that when the averagereflectivity is less than around 80%, i.e. the background is grey, anystraight overprinting of the modulating color will result in an averagereflectance lower than the background reflectance which is notacceptable in this process. A further observation is that since theallowed depth of modulation of the average is a maximum of 5% of theaverage, it is clear that the visual contrast of colors 11 or 12, 21 or22 and 31 or 32 against the respective backgrounds, will be less andless as the average goes lower, e.g. the contrast of colors such as 11or 12 against the background is stronger due to the higher value of theaverage reflectance.

Now when a document prepared according to the above prescription isplaced on a color copier, it is clear that because of the limiteddynamic range of the machine, colors 11, 12, 21, 22, 31 and 32 will bereproduced only as their average value, which being coincident with thebackground reflectance, the copy will show an essentially zero contrastbetween the copy of the general background and the copy of theinformation carrying portions of the original that are printed usingcolors 11, 12, 21, 22, 31 and 32. The copy will thus result in aquasi-uniform reflectance across the board, whereby the informationcarried on the original will have vanished on the copy.

As a further observation, we note that among the three cases I, II andIII, in case I, the color contrast for 11 and 12 relative to thebackground is the strongest on the original and the printing process isthe simplest as well, since 11 and 12 can be printed over an essentiallywhite background. The contrast of the information on the originaldecreases as we move to the configurations of case II and case III.

The optical characteristic of the original document having beendetermined as per the prescription given above, it is pretty wellguaranteed that the color copy will essentially result in a blank.However, I have considered the possibility of having in the worst casesome traces of the original information picked up by the copier due to adeviation in the modulation depth of the spectral characteristics of theoriginal from the range prescribed by the present invention or aparticularly strong response in some photocopies with respect to a givencolor shade. I have thus considered that a second special propertyunrelated to color and therefore, unreproducible characteristic shouldbe imparted to the original. This is chosen to be a special chemical orphotochemical characteristic. Thus, when the photocopy shows arelatively easily perceptible visual deviation from the originaldocument, a final and definitive chemical, mechanical or photochemicalverification is performed on the suspected copy. The copy willundoubtedly fail to respond to this verification process and thereby thelatter allows the clear identification of the original from the copy.

The chemical, mechanical or photochemical characteristic utilized forthe identification of the original must be easily conveyed to the inksused in the printing of the original document, and also it must beeasily verified as being present on the original and absent on the copy.

In accordance with the invention, as one mode of identification of theoriginal, I have chosen to introduce in the printing medium, for exampleprinting inks, a small percentage, typically 2 to 10% of either a colorformer leuco dye or an activator such as a phenolic resin, a bisphenolor a hydroxybenzoate which can be dissolved in the solvent vehicle orsuspended in water based inks and thus be conveyed to the printedinformation portions of the original document. Clearly the color copieddocument will contain no trace of such chemicals. The chemicalverification process consists of applying to the document thecomplimentary chemical, i.e. when the printing ink contains theactivator, the verification is performed with a color former leuco dyecarrying applicator. On the other hand, when the printing ink isprepared with the addition of a color former, the verification isperformed with an activator carrying applicator. Examples of such leucodyes are: Copikem 14, Copikem Magenta, Copikem 6, Copikem 4 made byHilton-Davis, Pergascript Orange I-5R, Pergascript Red I-6B, PergascriptGreen I-3G, Pergascript Yellow I-3R made by Ciga-Geigy, Reakt Red 448,Reakt Yellow 186 made by BASF, either alone or in combination.

Examples of such activating phenolic resins are: zincated, modifiedalkyphenol activator HRJ-10138; the Alkylphenol Novolac resin activatorHRJ-2609 as made by Schenectady Chemicals Inc.; the chemical zincchloride ZnCl₂, some bisphenols and hydroxybenzoates either alone or incombination.

The verification process will result in a highly visible color change ofthe information portion when color former leuco dyes meet the activatoron the original, while in the fraudulent copy, the application of eithera leuco dye or the activator through an applicator will leave the copyinert.

Other reactive pairs of chemicals can be chosen as well with one of thepair inserted in the ink while the other is used for verification.

After the substrate, such as paper or the like, is chosen and has theproper background color and the message to be prevented from colorcopying is printed using the prescribed contrast colors, other textualmatter can be printed thereon in another ordinary color such as black.

In use, if the substrate has been duplicated in a color copier, therewill be a clear indication of this copying, due to the fact that themessage printed with the proper contrast colors will have disappeared,since the contrast between the contrast color and the background colorwill have been reduced to zero on the copy. The user can verify that thecopy is not an original by the second step of the chemical verificationas described above. It is clear that other types of verification as asecond step can be used within the context of the present invention asdiscussed below.

Indeed, the verification system described above clearly requires theavailability of a chemical which causes a reaction with the other of aleuco dye or activator pair which is already imbedded in the ink. It hasbeen found that while this system is very adequate and acceptable inmany situations, in other cases it is preferred to make the verificationprocess independent from the availability of a special chemical. Inaccordance with the invention, a number of other methods have thereforebeen devised for verification.

In one embodiment, the leuco dye and activator components (referredhereinafter as chemicals A and B) are physically mixed in the printingink while they are chemically kept separate. This is achieved by one ofa number of configurations.

In one case, to achieve the chemical separation, the two chemicals areprevented from being dissolved in a solvent. Instead they are firstmechanically micronized into extremely fine submicron sized particles.This submicronization process is fundamentally important in order toallow the integration of these particles into a very smooth inkstructure.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the submicronized chemicals Aand B are disposed in an aqueous solution containing a small percentageof polyvinyl alcohol or polyvinyl acetate or any other well known bindermaterials. The sufficient amount of the combination of ordinary inkcolorants is then added to the mixture, such that when this combinationis used as an ink, for example, in a flexographic printing process, theprinted information has a pale visible color characteristic thatcomplies with the requirements described in this disclosure andillustrated by the graphs of FIG. 1. In another embodiment of theinvention, the submicronized chemicals A and B can be disposed in aproperly chosen offset ink oil base vehicle such as soya oil base offsetink vehicles, where at least one of A or B and preferably both A and Bnot being soluble, the intimately mixed chemicals A and B do not react.The sufficient amount of the combination of ordinary ink colorants isthen added to the mixture such that when this combination is used as anoffset ink, for example, the printed information has a pale visiblecolor characteristic that complies with the requirements described inthis disclosure and illustrated by the graphs of FIG. 1.

When the print is subjected to a simultaneous mechanical pressure andbrisk rubbing action, the micronized particles A and B melt underfrictional heat and merge into each other and the color characteristicof their combination is developed, as required by the verificationprocess. This result is achieved with greater or lesser ease dependingupon the choice of the activator. For example, submicronized D8(4-hydroxy 4-isopropoxy diphenyl sulfone) compared to zincatedalkylphenol resin lends itself to easier reaction in the leuco dye uponrubbing. This action is coined the "rub and reveal" action. Clearly theabove invention can be implemented by extending this concept to a numberof other combinations of dispersion vehicles that can keep at least oneor better both A and B in an undissolved state, such vehicles are knownto those skilled in the field of ink making and related techniques. Thisinvention is meant to cover all such variations.

It has also been found that since, in the embodiment just described, theheat developed during the rubbing process is the triggering stimulant,straight application of heat to the printed document can cause the colorchange reaction; thus the simple application of heat to the printeddocument can be used as the verification process. For applications,however, where the sensitivity to heat is found to be a hindrance, theinvention includes another embodiment which renders the printed documentresistant to reaction by heat up to increasingly higher temperatures asrequired up to, for example, 350° F. or higher and still provide the"rub and reveal" characteristic. In one implementation of thisinvention, the two highly submicronized chemicals A and B are separatelydispersed in aqueous solutions. In addition, a third colorlesswater-based printable and neutral varnish such as an acrylic copolymerwater-based varnish or a UV curable varnish is prepared as component C.The component C is chosen in order to provide, when applied to anysurface, a solvent resistant impermeable coating which furthermore is tohave a high softening temperature typically between 210° F. and 400° F.To one of the above aqueous solutions A or B, the visible dyes are addedin order to provide the printed color, as prescribed in FIG. 1, and suchcolored aqueous solutions are called A' or B'.

One can now implement the invention in one of the two following ways. Asshown in FIG. 2a, the information 2 to be protected against colorcopying is first printed on a substrate 1 using the one ink A' or B'.This printing step is followed by a continuous coating 3 with thewaterbased or UV cured varnish C and finally a third coating 4 is addedwith the aqueous solution containing the other of chemicals B or A indispersion.

The order of this process can also be completely reversed, as shown inFIG. 2b. In that case, the substrate 1 is first coated with a layer of4' of one of A or B, then top coated with a layer 3' of the solution Cand then finally overprinted with information 2' of the other of B' orA' solution. When the document described in FIG. 2a or FIG. 2b isexposed to heat, the layer 3, 3' will act as a thermal and solventbarrier up to the limiting softening temperature thereof. This can behigher than 210° F. and as high as several hundred degrees. On the otherhand, when a strong localized pressure is applied from the top byapplicator 5, as shown in FIGS. 2a and 2b, the pressure can easilypuncture through all these layers 4, 3, 2, or 2', 3' 4' and when therubbing is added to the pressure and enough heat is generated, thecombination of 4, 2 or 2', 4' takes place with the characteristic colorchange.

The objective of preventing the activation of the "rub and reveal"systems by the simple application of heat can also be achieved by one ofthe following embodiments all of which is part of this invention.

Thus, just as well, the submicronized chemicals A and B can be separablydispersed in offset ink vehicles and the whole process of printing insuccessive steps of first A and then B or the reverse and separating thetwo steps by the printing of the intermediate layer C and be carried onin an offset printing process. As mentioned above, the isolating varnishlayer C can conveniently consist of a UV cured varnish coating which isparticularly well suited for impermeability to solvents.

In another embodiment shown in FIG. 2c, the submicronized chemicals Aand B are first dispersed in an oil vehicle and then the mixture 6 isencapsulated in microcapsules 7 of which the wall materials provideproperties similar to the coating C above, i.e., high softening andmelting temperatures as well as impermeability to solvents. In this casethe encapsulated submicronized chemicals A and B can be inserted in anyone of the non-solvent ink vehicles 8 such as those used in water-baseas well as some mild offset ink systems using soya oil as vehicles andprinted on substrate 9. Clearly in these cases the solid chemicals A andB will remain perfectly unaffected by heat, until by applying alocalized strong mechanical pressure, the microcapsule walls are brokenand the chemicals A and B are physically mixed by the further rubbingaction that can generate the necessary heat to finally let A and B reactand generate the expected reaction color.

Another method of verification in accordance with the invention, whichdoes not require the presence of a chemical carrying pair to activatethe printed ink, is the activation by exposure to radiation rather thanby exposure to mechanical action. In this case, the verification iscaused by the addition to the printing ink of microencapsulatedphotochromic dyes. Such photochromic dyes can be made sensitive only tointense radiation and very insensitive to exposure to ordinary light,such that only under intense radiation and especially ultravioletradiation, an appreciable color change takes place. In this case, inorder to verify the authenticity of the printed document and when indoubt, the document is exposed to intense light and preferably anultraviolet light source. The original document will show, withinseconds, an appreciable color change, while a fraudulently copieddocument will remain passive and thus reveal its false nature.

While the invention disclosed above provides a very effective and easilyverifiable anticounterfeiting technique against fraud by color copiers.I have extended this invention by the addition of a very simpleconjugate component to the printing process that constitutes a mainfeature added to this invention, since the conjugate component willfurther discourage the fraudulent copier and will reveal the color copyin an obvious manner.

It is thus considered that the person attempting to fraudulently copy adocument protected by the present invention will be induced to try allthat is possible to favor in the copying process the perceived colorsexhibited by curves 11, 12, 21, 22, 31, 32 of FIG. 1, which aspreviously described, correspond to light green, pink, purple etc.colors, in order to be able to reproduce the word or message whichotherwise would be blocked out in the copying process. I have thus foundthe remarkable efficiency of adding to the protected document aconjugate printed alarm sounding message such as "Not Valid", "VOID", orany other obvious wording whereby the conjugate element is printed withthe same ink and essentially the same prescription as the ones used forthe protected message except for the fact that the conjugate element isprinted with a modulated spectral characteristic with a modulation depthcorresponding to a value close to but higher than the thresholdprescribed for safety against color copying. Thus in reference to FIG. 1a spectral modulation depth slightly above 5% is adopted for theconjugate element. This can easily be achieved by making printing platessuch that the conjugate message printing elements of the latter carrysomewhat higher densities of ink than the elements that shall print themessage prevented from colorcopying.

It is easily visualized that any attempt in colorcopying of the originaldocument where an effort is made to reproduce the main protected messagewill undoubtedly reproduce even more vividly such conjugate messages as"Not Valid", "VOID" etc. and obliterate the copy.

The final and important step in the addition of the conjugate message tothe original document consists in placing such conjugate messages whichare still a very pale color, under the text or the graphics of otherwisenormally printed components of the document, having thus in view theautomatic masking of the conjugate message to the eyes of the reader ofthe original document. Clearly, however, as described above, when thecounterfeiter trying to color copy the original document makes an effortto emphasize the colors of the main message printed according to curves11, 12, 21, 22, 31, 32 of FIG. 1, he or she will suddenly be faced withthe alarm sounding conjugate message which will obviously copy even morereadily than the main message.

The invention presented above provides a clearly defined identificationprocess to separate originals from counterfeits. The person skilled inthis art can easily develop various ways of implementing this invention,which are considered to be within the scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for protecting against duplication witha color copier, comprising the steps of:providing a background color ona substrate having an average reflectance value; and printing on thebackground color with a contrast color having a spectral characteristicwhich modulates the average reflectance value by no more than 5% and hasan average value equal to the average reflectance value by applying aprinting medium .Iadd.including a binder and further .Iaddend.consistingof a mixture of micronized color former leuco dye and micronizedactivator material and wherein at least one of the micronized colorformer leuco dye and activator is non-soluble in the printing medium. ..2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of applying aprinting medium comprises applying the mixture including a binder..!.3.The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of applying comprisesapplying an oil based printing ink.
 4. The method according to claim 3,wherein the oil based printing ink is an offset printing ink.
 5. Themethod according to claim 1, further comprising activating the colorformer leuco dye and the activator material to change the color of theprinting medium by simultaneously applying mechanical pressure and arubbing action on the printing medium.
 6. A method for protectingagainst duplication with a color copier, comprising the stepsof:providing a background color on a substrate having an averagereflectance value; and printing on the background color with a contrastcolor having a spectral characteristic which modulates the averagereflectance value by applying a printing medium .Iadd.including a binderand further .Iaddend.consisting of one of micronized color former leucodye and a micronized activating phenolic resin, covering the printingmedium with a first colorless continuous coating of a barrier materialproviding a non-porous coating of a high softening temperature lyingbetween 210° F. and 400° F. and covering the continuous coating with asecond colorless continuous coating of the other of a micronized colorformer leuco dye and micronized activator material.
 7. The methodaccording to claim 6, further comprising activating the color formerleuco dye and the activator material to change the color of the printingmedium by simultaneously applying mechanical pressure and a rubbingaction on the printing medium.
 8. A method for protecting againstduplication with a color copier, comprising the steps of:providing abackground color on a substrate having an average reflectance value; andprinting on the background color with a contrast color having a spectralcharacteristic which modulates the average reflectance value by applyinga first colorless continuous coating of one of micronized color formerleuco dye and a micronized activator material, covering the firstcoating with a second colorless continuous coating of a barrier materialproviding a non-porous coating of a high softening temperature lyingbetween 210° F. and 400° F. and applying a printing medium.Iadd.including a binder and further .Iaddend.consisting of the other ofmicronized color former leuco dye and micronized activating phenolicresin.
 9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising activatingthe color former leuco dye and the activator material to change thecolor of the printing medium by simultaneously applying mechanicalpressure and a rubbing action on the printing medium.
 10. A method forprotecting against duplication with a color copier, comprising the stepsof:providing a background color on a substrate having an averagereflectance value; and printing on the background color with a contrastcolor having a spectral characteristic which modulates the averagereflectance value by applying a printing medium .Iadd.including a binderand further .Iaddend.consisting of a microencapsulated photochromic dyeonly sensitive to intense radiation.
 11. The method according to claim10, further comprising activating the photochromic dye to change thecolor of the printing medium.
 12. A method for protecting againstduplication with a color copier, comprising the steps of:providing abackground color on a substrate having an average reflectance value; andprinting on the background color with a contrast color having a spectralcharacteristic which modulates the average reflectance value bymicroencapsulating at least one of a micronized color former leuco dyeand a micronized activator material with a colorless continuous coatingof a barrier material and applying a printing medium .Iadd.including abinder and further .Iaddend.consisting of the microcapsules and theother of micronized color former leuco dye and micronized activatingphenolic resin.
 13. The method according to claim 12, further comprisingactivating the color former leuco dye and the activator material tochange the color of the printing medium by simultaneously applyingmechanical pressure and a rubbing action on the printing medium.
 14. Amethod for protecting against duplication with a color copier,comprising the steps of:providing a background color on a substratehaving an average reflectance value; and printing on the backgroundcolor with a contrast color having a spectral characteristic whichmodulates the average reflectance value by applying a printing medium.Iadd.including a binder and further .Iaddend.consisting of a micronizedcolor former leuco dye and a micronized activator material in an oilvehicle and microencapsulated with a colorless continuous coating of abarrier material and wherein the barrier material is non-soluble in theprinting medium, nonporous to the oil vehicle and has a softeningtemperature between 210° and 400° F. and at least one of the micronizedcolor former leuco dye and the micronized activator material arenon-soluble in the oil vehicle.
 15. The method according to claim 14,further comprising activating the color former leuco dye and theactivating phenolic resin to change the color of the printing medium bysimultaneously applying mechanical pressure and a rubbing action on theprinting medium.
 16. A method for protecting against duplication with acolor copier, comprising the steps of:providing a background color on asubstrate having an average reflectance value; and printing on thebackground color with a contrast color having a spectral characteristicwhich modulates the average reflectance value by no more than 5% and hasan average value equal to the average reflectance value to therebyproduce unreadable copy when copied and printing on the background aconjugate element having a spectral characteristic which modulates theaverage reflectance value by at least 5% and has an average value equalto the average reflectance value to thereby produce readable copy whencopied.
 17. The method according to claim 6, wherein the step ofprinting the contrast color comprises the steps of printing the contrastcolor with a spectral characteristic which modulates the averagereflectance value by no more than 5% and has an average value equal tothe average reflectance value.
 18. The method according to claim 8,wherein the step of printing the contrast color comprises the steps ofprinting the contrast color with a spectral characteristic whichmodulates the average reflectance value by no more than 5% and has anaverage value equal to the average reflectance value.
 19. The methodaccording to claim 10, wherein the step of printing the contrast colorcomprises the steps of printing the contrast color with a spectralcharacteristic which modulates the average reflectance value by no morethan 5% and has an average value equal to the average reflectance value.20. The method according to claim 12, wherein the step of printing thecontrast color comprises the steps of printing the contrast color with aspectral characteristic which modulates the average reflectance value byno more than 5% and has an average value equal to the averagereflectance value.
 21. The method according to claim 14, wherein thestep of printing the contrast color comprises the steps of printing thecontrast color with a spectral characteristic which modulates theaverage reflectance value by no more than 5% and has an average valueequal to the average reflectance value.